Wonderful World Beautiful People | johnozed

Happy New year to one and all, excepting spammers and haters. I do get a lot of spam that does not make it to the comments. Usually it’s mostly from Russia and almost always written on gobbledygook. So my good wishes for them are non-existent.

Last night was off to a wobbly start. First off I started drinking around 4:00, hitting the Bushmills which made writing fun. Don’t know if it made reading as enjoyable as writing but it wasn’t my concern last night.

I expected Bill to be home around 6:00 but I didn’t hear from him until around 8:00 by which time I was quite buzzed and hungry and borderline cranky. Still I got my act together and headed out to meet Bill at Arthur’s Steakhouse.

I was a bit annoyed with the fact that Bill never called to let me know what was going on on his end. I got over it as I inhaled my steak and potatoes. I had two pints, Bill couldn’t finish his, he said it tasted funny and I tasted it and it seemed fine. After he ate he felt queasy and ran to the bathroom. Nothing happened but he did feel a bit odd he said.

We headed back home and he promptly lay down for a little a while. I enjoyed my La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero and had some more whiskey. After an hour or so of Beatles Christmas messages I woke Bill up to see if he still wanted to go to Rand and Lisa’s as we had planned.

He said he was even though I did give him a few chances to back out. The walk from Park Avenue to Bloomfield Street was mostly quiet in the bone chilling cold. I was slightly inebriated so I wasn’t feeling much of anything weather-wise.

Made it Chez Rigoux-Hoppe safe and sound and climbed the two flights of stairs to their abode. Lois and Fred as well as John Figueroa and his wife Arianna and their daughter Luna were throughout the apartment.

Lois and Bill

Rand was staving off a cold and doing an admirable job at that. Lot’s of snacks and we got there in time to help hand out champagne before the midnight hour. Lot’s a laughs and chit chat ensued. I continued drinking with some Guinness I brought. Bill had another pint for himself.

Ran with his pots and pans at midnight

We all settled down after the clanging of pots and pans on the fire escape and watched the Steven Colbert Christmas Special that I had recorded for myself but let it erase itself on the DVR. Good thing that Rand saved it.

Everyone loved it of course, how could they not. Both Rand and I were somewhat surprised at how agreeable it was for Elvis Costello to dress up as a Jack in the Box as well as other things. I think Elvis had fallen out of favor with Rand as well as myself.

John Fig

And the version of What’s So Funny (About Peace, Love and Understanding) with Willie Nelson, Feist, John Legend and Toby Keith as well as a grizzly bear was outstanding.

Gigglepuss and Me

The party wound down after that, with everyone heading to their respective homes and leaving Rand and Lisa with the brownies.

El Jefe and Lady Gigglepuss

Slept really well, nice to have Bill in bed again. How I missed his snoring. I was up and out on the street at 10:00, getting bagels and newspapers. That was the last of the outside world that I saw for the day. It was enough.

Bill eventually got out of bed and we had a great time together. He even went the distance and finally was able to hook my computer up to the wireless network so once again, I am back on my own computer.

A major accomplishment for which I merely sat on the couch reading and making some hot chocolate. A very nice way to start the new year.

And I once again wish each of you a very Happy New Year!

Me with my La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero for New Years Eve

Bill sleeping off his queasiness

New year's Bill

Saturday night. Things are getting back to what could only be described as relative normalcy. Last night was quiet. Juan was out gallivanting, Bill back in Stuyvesant Town.

I watched Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, which was actually the first Charlie Chaplin film I had seen from start to finish. Also the first Chaplin film that I had seen where he actually speaks.

I never knew that he spoke in his later films and often wondered how long he would have done silent roles. Apparently in 1940 he was speaking in films. According to Wikipedia it was Chaplin’s first talking picture.

It was a daring movie that he made, since the US was at ‘peace’ with Germany at the time and it certainly pissed Hitler off which was an added bonus. A year later we were at war with the Axis powers.

After that I basically started reading a book that I had gotten from the library, John Lennon- The Life by Philip Norman. Supposed to be the best biography of Lennon so far. It is pretty good.

Philip Norman wrote an excellent biography on the Beatles in the 1980’s called Shout! The Lennon book was written with Yoko Ono’s blessing and she asked her son Sean and Paul McCartney to cooperate with the author, which they did.

But as luck would have it, once Yoko and Paul read the galleys they both did some furious backpedaling and denounced the book.

So far the only dodgy thing was John accidentally touching his mother’s breast and wondering what else he could get away with.

That would raise some eyebrows, but Yoko did give access to Lennon’s diaries and journals and as great a songwriter and musician Lennon was, he was also a flawed individual and he would probably be the first to admit it.

It’s a weighty tome and carried some heft as I had it in my shoulder bag and wandered around Manhattan en route to the Guggenheim Museum where I was meeting Bill and Meghan Taylor Mastro with Lily and Ruby, as well as Pat Paterson and his wife, the one and only Ann Boyles Paterson.

I do prefer going to art galleries instead of museums but the Guggenheim was on the agenda so it was off to the Upper East Side. Bill got there a minute or two before me and as we were waiting for the others Juan called wondering what was going on.

It was around 3:00 and he had just woken up. Nice life, which Juan has. I would have invited him along but this was the first I had heard from him since yesterday. He was cool with it, he had to go back to Trenton anyhow.

The Glen Ridge contingent arrived and soon we were inside the Frank Lloyd Wright designed building. I’m always reminded of the roller skating joke from Hannah and Her Sisters regarding the rotunda of the Guggenheim.

After walking around being nonplussed at the exhibitions we were on the street again, $18.00 lighter in each of our wallets. We could have gone to the Bergen County History Museum and looked at the mastodon bones, that would have been cheaper.

I used to go there with Annemarie when I was growing up. It was cheap then, but could be about the same price as the Guggenheim nowadays.

We decided on a bus downtown so we would roll past the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. Unfortunately it was stop and go traffic for about 40 blocks which screwed up my spine somewhat.

Still the company made all the difference and we had shared some truffles and other chocolates and had many laughs as well as taking snapshots of each other. Bill and I got off at 14th street, the others continued onto the West Village to meet up with Jim Mastro.

After parting ways with Bill I stopped by Farfetched to try to persuade Harpy to come with me to see Ann and Meghan but he just wanted to go home after working retail in a shop that’s taken quite a beating this holiday season.

Nothing that Farfetched has done, just that no one is buying anything anywhere these days.

So now I’m home, just had a nice dinner, watched a decent documentary on Groucho Marx and here I am sitting at Bill’s Mac and writing this.

What have YOU been up to?